Impact.

The motto of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, "Ecclesia Plantanda" ("Let the Church be Planted"), sums up the goal of the man and his achievements. Almost single-handedly he joined the scattered and directionless Lutheran churches and forged them into an American denomination that could effectively serve the flood of German immigrants in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Most agree that "the history of the Lutheran Church in America from his landing in 1742 to his death . . . is scarcely more than his biography."

Pietistic Beginnings.

Muhlenberg was born on 6 September 1711 in Hanover into the pious family of a shoemaker who was active in the local Lutheran church. He attended a classical school and received a firm grounding in Latin. After his father died, a local minister taught him to play the organ, which began a lifelong love of music...